The personal blog of Peter Lee a.k.a. "China Hand"... Life is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel, and an open book to those who read. You are welcome to contact China Matters at the address chinamatters --a-- prlee.org or follow me on twitter @chinahand.

And maybe discuss some unfinished business i.e. the timidity of the prestige media outlets in amplifying Miles Kwok's rather interesting allegations about the PRC, the CCP, and Chinese spook and influence ops inside the USA.

A few days ago, in an appearance at the National Press
Club, Miles Kwok responded to what looked like a planted question in order to “name
a name”, rather bluntly giving the name of a manager at Voice of America who
is, he alleged, an agent of the Chinese security services.

I didn’t name the name for the simple reason that I don’t do
witchhunts.Gimme a crime, a court, and
due process, not outrage and innuendo funneled through the media is what I say.

The flock of journos from the national media in attendance
(at least moderator Bill Gertz of the Washington Free Beacon, and reporters from the Wall
Street Journal and NPR, who identified themselves when asking questions) chose
not to lead their reports with this rather juicy allegation, even without naming any names.

Wonder why. I don't think the US media is down on witch hunts of foreign influence in our media and politics.

I’ve been following the witchhunt against Chinese influence
down in Australia and consider it a template/trial run/warmup for a similar
effort by China journos up here. In
Australia they fling mud with a free hand and name names; but so far, in the case of China, the US media hasn’t.

In this instance, one possible reason is that Miles Kwok is so polarizing and,
quite frankly, skanky a figure that nobody wants to rely on him as a primary
source, at least in public…at the same time every national outlet has been in
contact with Kwok, his large, well-funded team, and his lovingly curated
dossiers on CCP sleaze, either leaked to him by his allies in China or gathered
by his investigators overseas.

Instead, I’m guessing the big outlets are busily engaged in
parallel construction, that is taking the name Miles Kwok put out and trying to
put together a story based on their own reporting and steno from the security
services…and that doesn’t mention Miles Kwok.

The New York Times has apparently taken this route in the
past, having run at least one story about Wang Qishan and his allegedly corrupt
and arcane financial holdings that parallels what Miles Kwok had been talking
about…but didn’t mention Miles Kwok.

Understandable, perhaps, because one PRC strategy to silence
Kwok seems to be a firm and convincing promise that anybody and everybody who
mentions Kwok’s allegations are going to get sued.

So, better part of valor-wise, it’s smarter to run with
Miles Kwok’s allegations without being seen to be running with Miles Kwok. And no cause for the VOA manager with a bulls-eye on his back to breathe easier just because an allegation, with or without a name attached, wasn't in the papers the next day.

In addition, there might be some journalistic omerta going
on, since the VOA is a US government-affiliated organization with lots of
buddies in the media world.

Maybe the Broadcasting Board of Governors were
able to prevail upon journalists not to take the incendiary step of starting a
witchhunt inside VOA until the story was absolutely locked down…and/or the BBG
had ample time to clean its own house/prep for the public relations fallout.

This genteel, old school crisis management may not prevail because
Steve Bannon has his eyes on China, Voice of America, the BBG…and Miles Kwok.

With Steve Bannon involved, I’d say we might be looking at
torches and pitchforks instead of a nice, orderly kangaroo court…and something
other than the inspiring story of a noble struggle against insidious Chinese
influence that China hawks hope to use as a framing device for their political
and policy campaign.

Watch the whole episode by joining Newsbud.Or you can watch it simply by renting the
Vimeo feed for $1.95.

The a la carte Vimeo offering is a nice feature for cheapskates, tirekickers who want a
testdrive before they pay the Newsbud subscription fee, or for people who have
a specialized interest in the witchhunt against Chinese influence looming over
American politics, media, and academia.